Lemon Tea: Murder Mansion
by BadCatGirl
Summary: Second Story in the Lemon Tea series. Danni has settled into life with the Lemon family. But when a double dog dare goes horribly wrong, will Danni risk her life to save her new family?
1. Family Life

Chapter 1

_Dear Diary,_

_Danni has been with us for two weeks now, and there's no sign of her leaving. Kay checks up with Officer Micheals whenever she sees him, but the police haven't been able to track down her family and there are no records of her anywhere. I don't know what Kay is going to do when school starts up. Danni had to be moved to the basement, while she and the twins are as thick as thieves most of the time, at night they get into fights. What movie to watch, whose turn it was to sleep in the cot, what movie to put on, whether to open the window at night, on and on. Plus there's that social worker, Mrs. Marks. She's a nosey old buzzard. She's had her nose in all our lives ever since Danni came. I mean, even I will admit when it comes to parenting, Kay is pretty laid-back, live and let live. Heck, it's how she runs the shop too. _

"Danni! Where are those books for the ghost hunters?" Kay yelled down the stairs.

Danni rolled her eyes, looking over her comic book at the stacks of new books across the basement from her cot.

"Danni! They're waiting!"

Danni pushed herself up off the cot, tossing the comic onto the cardboard box she used as a nightstand.

She rummaged through the books, checking the slips of paper that held the names of the people who'd ordered them. Kay had a rule, be organized early so you could goof off and be completely unorganized later. Danny scanned the slips as she tossed the boks the side, lazily. Finally she found one entitled "Ghost Portals; Accidents of Nature" She remembered Vlad used to have a half-finished portal in the corner of his lab. The Maddie program had once explained to her that Vlad had "redirected resources to the cloning project" some time ago. Unbidden, the memories of her father clouded her vision. His smooth, comforting speech, his intenseness, his strange love for people who packed things, and the way he mooned over the Maddie program, who had practically been her mother.

Danni stuffed the book under her arm. She'd thrown all that away. Though sometimes she wished she could go back to Wisconsin…

Danni climbed up the stairs. They exited into the kitchen next to the stove. She then went out the open door to the main room where Kay kept most of the sale books. She could see Damien lounging on the couch with a Spider-Man comic as his twin practiced twirling a basketball on his finger.

"I got the book." She plunked it down on the counter Kay was leaning on, laughing at a story one of the ghost hunters was telling.

"Thanks… Oh Danni, there are two. I'm sorry, I should've told you that." Kay apologized. "Could you run down and find the other?"

Danni nodded, turning to leave.

Behind her she could hear them talking.

"So that's the famous Danielle."

"She's a good kid." Kay answered proudly.

Danni stopped, hiding behind the kitchen door.

"So she's a runaway?" the ghost hunter asked.

"No one knows. Whenever we ask her, she shuts down completely."

"Have they found any leads?"

"Not one. It's like she didn't even exist before she landed on my doorstep. Poor kid."

Danni hopped down the stairs. Kay didn't know how close to right she really was. How old was she really, a few months? Hitting the bottom stair, she walked over to the book pile again, staring at it glumly.

She started rummaging through the pile again. Charisma's new design books were in. There was the usual pile of self-help books, a few Sherlock Holmes novels, and a travel guide to Ohio. Sometimes she wondered just who Kay was selling all this junk to.

Finally she came upon the slip for the ghost hunters, tucked in between the pages of a slimmer book called "Ghosts and Their Nature; Evil or Misunderstood?"

Danni flipped to the pages the paper had been slipped into.

"There are a variety of reasons given for why a spirit may become a ghost; A sudden, unexpected death, unfinished business, an attachment to their mortal surroundings, or a violent emotion at the time of death. Many ghosts seem to exhibit anger towards the world, suggesting that their death was untimely and unfair. Some seem merely lost, going through the motions of their past life, possibly unaware of their own passing."

Danni closed the book back up. It didn't say anything about half-ghosts, or what would happen if a ghost were destroyed. She almost wondered if that were possible. But the nagging thing in the back of her head was what would happen to her.

"Danni, good!" Kay beamed at her, "Barb and the others have to get going."

Danni snapped out of her thoughts. She handed the book to Kay, who turned and rang it up on her out of date register.

"Kay, I've got to ask," Barb said, leaning over the counter as Kay slid the books into a brown paper bag, "Where did you get that thing, the museum?"

Kay looked confused for a moment, the lock of white hair falling into her face.

"The register, why don't you get a new one?"

Kay laughed.

"Don't you know? It's all part of the charm of Cranny booksellers, we haven't updated our technology since Prohibition."

The two women laughed, and Barb turned to leave, giving Kay a little wave as she dragged her fellows out the door after her.

Kay leaned on the counter, watching her two boys relaxing in the noonday sun coming through the shop window.

Danni lifted herself upon the counter.

"Hey girlfriend, what's got you all moody and pouty?" Kay asked.

"Nuthin'."

"Nuthin' huh?" Kay leapt up onto the counter next to Danni. "You don't have a "nuthin'" face on."

"Never mind."

Kay studied her young ward's face. Danni was in a pouty mood again today. Try as she did, Kay couldn't find any way to cheer her up.

"Okay, since you're not going to tell me what's on your mind, we're going to make tea and sit out in the courtyard drinking and getting your mind on gossip and other pleasantly distracting things."

Damien and David practically jumped out of their seats.

"Gotta go, Mum!" said Damien.

"We've got a game!" said David.

"Bull." Kay rolled her eyes. "But if you want to go, you can go."

David and Damien cheered.

Kay laughed. "Come on Danni, I'll show you how to make the infamous Lemon Family Tea."

"Can I go with the Demons instead?" Danni asked, referring to Natalie's nickname for the twins.

Kay sighed. "Sure. Keep an eye on them for me, and get back before dark." Danni nodded, running to join the boys.

Kay retreated to the kitchen. She'd have some tea made for the lot of them once they got home.


	2. DoubleDog Dare

Chapter 2:

"So where are we going?" Danni asked the twins.

"To the park, there're a couple-a basketball courts there." David dribbled his ball from hand to hand. "I need ta work on my free-throw." He demonstrated slightly, tossing the ball to his brother, causing Damien to drop his comic.

"Hey, watch it, jerk!"

"Baby!"

"Donkey-butt!"

Danni rolled her eyes, sticking her tongue out at them, which they both retaliated.

"Hey, dorks!"

Danni and the twins broke off the beginnings of a hair-pulling contest to look up at who had called out to them.

"Mike," growled David.

"David," smirked Mike. "What are you losers doing out?"

Danni's eyes glowed green. She barely knew Mike, but he'd lumped her in with the twins, his buddies always crossing themselves whenever she and the boys passed them.

"None of your business, jerk-hole." David said, clenching his teeth.

"If you're going to the basketball court, you might as well head back home to your mommy, they closed them."

"Why did they do that?" asked Damien asked.

"The hoop fell down and killed someone. Their brains were splattered all over the court. Same thing I'm gonna do to you next game, Davey-boy."

"Cool!" exclaimed Damien. He looked at the surprised faces staring at him.

"Not a good cool, more like bad-gross-cool." He explained, shrugging with a grin.

Mike gave him a sadistic look. "They've already kicked everybody out. There's nothing left to see but the yellow tape."

"I dare ya!" David challenged suddenly. Surprised faces all around looked at him.

"Mike, I dare ya to steal some of the yellow tape."

Mike glared at him, then turned to leave.

"I double-dog dare ya." Mike bristled. He turned slowly.

"Okay, but if I do it, you gotta do something too."

"Don't do it, Dave, you know he'll ask something really bad." Damien warned his brother.

"Unless you're chicken. BWAK! BWAK!" Mike flapped his arms, his buddies laughing.

"I'll do it." David stuck his jaw forward.

"Then let's go." Mike turned back towards the park, waving for the rest of them to follow.

"This is really stupid." Danni whispered to the twins.

They and Mike's friends were crouched behind a line of hedges facing the basketball courts.

There were a few police guarding the edges of the scene. Mike crept slowly towards them, a small pair of scissors in hand. He snuck up to the corner pole where the tape was tied off. Mike snipped off a good-sized piece and darted back to the hedges.

Mike grinned at them, holding up the piece of crime scene tape.

"Now it's your turn, Davey." Mike gloated.

"I'm ready." David folded his arms, trying to look confident.

"Okay you gotta go in…" Mike paused, thinking for a moment, "Murder Mansion." He decided.

"No way!" snapped Damien. "Are you insane?"

"I'll do it." Growled David.

"What's Murder Mansion?" Danni asked, not liking the sound of that one bit.

"You don't know about Murder Mansion?" one of Mike's friends asked. "It's where the Carter family was chopped up by their butler. He took an axe and hacked them to tiny pieces and hid their parts all over the house. People said he went crazy. He came down crying about blood and a monster in his head. Ever since then no one foolish enough to enter murder mansion has returned… sane at least."

"Plus Mom would kill us if she found out." Damien added.

"Is Davey scared?" Mike taunted.

"Hey Mike, maybe a different dare?" one of his friends asked.

Mike glared at him.

Murder Mansion towered over them, its tower's glaring down at them. The Mansion was overgrown in ivy. The front lawn and the mossy trees were overflowing with kudzu. A rusting iron gate hung haphazardly from the imposing ivy-covered stone wall that surrounded the property.

"You gotta go in and turn on the top light in the right tower." Mike pointed at the one that seemed to be tottering a bit more than the other.

"That's the one where Mr. Carter was killed. They say you can still hear his screams from when the butler chopped him up while he was still alive." Mike's friend whispered to Danni.

"I'll do it." Said David.

"What part of 'Mom will kill us' don't you understand?" Asked Damien.

David shrugged it off, squeezing through the bars of the front gate.

Danni and Damien watched him disappear into the rotting oak doors of the Mansion.

"So it's haunted?" Danni asked finally.

"I don't know," said Damien, "but it is condemned. Mom said so."

Danni squeezed between the bars.

"Hey, where are you going?" asked Damien.

"To make sure David doesn't get hurt! Kay would kill ME!"

She ran to the Mansion, hopping over kudzu vines.

Mike and his friends laughed.

"Great," mutter Damien, following Danni. "Now I've got an insane brother AND sister!"


	3. Tea and Chases

Chapter 3:

(I better warn you guys, with this chapter I go a little off the cutesy small-town kiddie program. In other words, the ghosts attack, but not in the typical Danny Phantom fashion. I'm a grade-A horror fan. I personally don't think it will be that scary, but if you're looking for something kiddie-friendly, well, let's just say I'm gonna have to change the rating with this chapter.)

Natalie opened up the door of the Cranny Bookshop. The bell rang, and Natalie could smell lemons on the air.

"She's making tea!" Natalie giggled, dropping her soda into the trash. Natalie skipped into the kitchen in the back.

Kay was stirring a boiling pot, dropping cloves into the pot.

"Natalie!" Kay beamed at her. "You're just in time, I need some cinnamon."

"The famous Lemon family tea," Natalie laughed, searching a cabinet for the cinnamon. "The cure for about anything that could possibly ail you… short of massive blunt force trauma, that is."

Kay laughed. "The recipe has been passed down from Lemon family matron to Lemon family matron for generations, and the day Brian knocked me up, making me the latest Lemon family mama, his mother shared the secret ingredients with me." She lifted up the wooden spoon, tasting it slightly with the tip of her tongue. She screwed up her face, shaking her head rapidly.

"Any chance of you sharing it with me?" Natalie asked, handing her the cinnamon.

"The day you marry one of my boys we'll talk."

Natalie shot her a dirty look.

"Sorry kiddo, Lemon family tradition. Even the guys don't know." Kay dropped three sticks of cinnamon into the pot. "And tradition is everything to Mama Lemon." Kay rolled her eyes.

"That why she looks like SHE swallowed a lemon every time she visits here?" Natalie grinned.

"Pssshh, she may have never approved of me, but we get along fine. Try this." Kay offered the spoon to Natalie, who took a small sip.

"God! It tastes like sludge!" she gasped, spitting into the sink.

"Sludge?" Kay tasted it. "Nope, like drinking acid. Good, we're on the right track."

Natalie looked shocked.

"Well it's not done yet, now is it?" Kay asked.

"This is really stupid." Damien said, pulling his leg out of a rotten floorboard.

"Yeah, I heard you the first five times." Danni rolled her eyes. "We just need to find David and then we can leave, okay?"

"He won't come, not until he's run up the stairs and figured out there's no power in here." Damien lurched backwards, his leg freed suddenly from the floor. "I told him Mike would pull something dirty."

Danni caught the twin in her arms. He brushed off his pant leg.

"Let's look for the stairs, David would of headed there first."

Damien rolled his eyes. What was it with girls and thinking they knew everything. First Mom, then Natalie, and now Danni?

Danni scanned the walls of the mansion. Years of neglect had caked the walls and furniture and grime. One wall had a large hole allowing kudzu and other weeds to spill in.

Damien trudged behind her, kicking aside debris. He glanced to the wall, spotting a nick in the corner. He walked up to it, tracing it with his finger.

"Danni, look at this!"

Danni joined him, staring at the nick in the wall.

"Do ya think the ax-killer made it?" he asked her in barely contained excitement.

Danni squinted, looking at it closer. The wood in the nick was clean compared to the surrounding wall.

"Naw, this is a new one."

A blue mist escaped from Danni's lips. "Oh no…" Danni whispered. Danni turned quick, pulling Damien down in time to duck the axe swinging at their heads.

&&&&&&&&&

"The ghosts are moving tonight, restless, hungry." (Elisha Cook Jr. –House on Haunted Hill)

&&&&&&&&&

Danni and Damien hit the floor. Danni looked up at their attacker who was prying the axe from the wall where it had lodged.

He was dressed in a white collared shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, black pants held up by suspenders. In place of a tie however, hung a length of frayed, coarse rope. He glowed a slight reddish tint, hovering several inches above the ground.

"It's the Carter family butler!" Damien gasped.

"Beware." His gutteral, choked voice had a haunting echo. His glowing grey eyes were wide and sad. The axe popped out of the wall, shedding wooden splinters onto the two children. "Beware."

Danni pulled Damien to his feet and they ran, the ghost flying after them.

Danni pulled Damien through a doorway, finding it to be an empty room. The ghost flew in after them, trapping them.

Damien closed his eyes tight as the ghost raised his axe above his head. Damien felt a strange lightness that spread from where Danni was gripping his arm to his stomach. He felt the axe, but instead of crunching down into his head, he felt a tickling sensation as it passed effortlessly through his body. Danni pulled him forward, running.

Damien opened his eyes, looking backwards at the now incredibly confused ghost.

"Come on, Damien! We've got to get out of here!"

"Not without David! We can't leave David!" Damien pleaded, pulling back on Danni's arm. The thought of leaving his brother tore at his insides like ragged claws.

Danni dragged him behind another corner, cupping his mouth with a hand. She glanced around the corner. The ghost floated down another corridor, searching for them.

Danni sighed. They had to find David fast if they were going to escape with their lives. She faced forward, trying to get it together. Looking forward, she noticed the stairs.

"Ugh, of course." She groaned. "The stairs. Damien, you get out of here and I'll look for David."

"No way! That ghost is blocking the way to the door, and I'm not leaving you and David!" he huffed stubbornly.

Danni glanced at the stairway. "Oh, all right, but stay close to me."

They crept up the stairs, conscious of ever squeak and creak the stairs made under their feet.

Danni was also all too aware of the unsteady stairs that shook sunk to the sides as they climbed up the circular stairs to the tower room.

Damien flinched as one of the rotted oil paintings lining the stairwell crashed down from its perch, rolling and crunching down the stairs.

Danni was relieved to see the tower room door as they finished their ascension. She even noticed a small line of light under the door, meaning David must of made it too.

"Beware!" She butler's ghost moaned, rising in midair beside the stairs where Danni and Damien were catching their breath. It swung it's axe at Danni's head, who ducked just in time, grabbing Damien's hand and running, out of breath to the door.

Danni grasped the doorknob, twisting it back and forth. It shook uselessly in its socket. Danni pulled on the door, then pushed, Damien's arms wrapped around her waist as he tried to add his own meager mass to the effort.

The butler raised his axe above their terrified heads, his grey eyes were filled with tears. He swung it down with one last mournful "Beware!"

&&&&&&&&

Thanks to everyone who has shown interest in this little project of mine by reviewing.

Chapter 4 is coming up fast.


	4. The Bishop

Chapter 4:

"_So why do you like this movie, again?" Natalie asked her employer. Natalie and Kay were stretched out with their feet up on a bench Kay had moved in front of them. Kay had also moved a small television and table out into the courtyard behind the cranny. The courtyard was not very big. Ivy crept up the stonewalls that enclosed it, and a small neglected herb garden in the corner sported weeds alongside the lavender and basil. Kay had connected a small, cheap DVD player to the TV, and the whole thing was hooked up to a long, orange extension cord. _

_Kay sipped nonchalantly on the lemon tea she'd finished brewing. The shadows were growing longer, and the courtyard was completely in shadow._

"_Come play with us, Danny. Forever and ever end ever…"_

_Kay gave Natalie a small smirk._

"_The Shining is a classic, Natalie." She said, cradling the tea in her hands._

"_Casablanca is a classic. The Maltese Falcon is a classic. Heck, Pulp Fiction is a classic. This," Natalie waved her hand at the screen where Jack Nicholson's face leered out at them from, "is NOT a classic."_

"_That is a matter of opinion. This is a completely different sort of classic. This movie has been scaring children and grownups alike since the seventies, and will keep scaring them for generations to come."_

"_I can't believe that you, a mother, would enjoy a movie about a guy trying to kill his own son."_

"_It's about more than that, Natalie. It's about ghosts, insanity, obsession, cabin fever, and isolation."_

"_And Jack Nicholson with an axe." Natalie added._

"_Well it's more of a hatchet."_

"_There's a difference?"_

"_I think so. I've never been quite clear on that."_

"_I'm pretty sure it's a fire axe."_

"_You're probably right." _

Danni phased Damien through the door. She heard the wood splinter as the ax hit the door. Damien was shaking, holding onto Danni's waist with a death grip.

"Well, well. More company?" a smooth, calm voice cooed from behind them. Danni turned to see the silhouette of tall man dressed completely in black. "It has been some time since we've had callers, and even longer since we've had three in a single day."

David stood at the man's side. The man had his hand on David's shoulder, and Danni noticed a slight reddish glow about the man.

"Who are you? What are you doing with David?" Danni asked, uneasy and suspicious.

"You may call me The Bishop, my dear. And your charming friend has been feeding my… curiosity." The Bishop released David's shoulder. David collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

"DAVID!" Danni and Damien both gasped.

Damien let go of Danni's waist and ran to his brother, shaking him.

"What did you do to him?" Damien cried out in shock, cradling his brother's shoulders.

"My dear child, don't you know? Children are meant to be seen and not heard." The Bishop lifted up his hand. It glowed a crimson red.

"Leave them alone!" Danni yelled. Two white bands of light appeared around her waist. As they separated, Danni's hoodie and shorts were replaced with her white and black phantom outfit.

"Fascinating." Bishop lifted up a glowing red hand to his face, and Danny was horrified to see that he didn't have a face, just a blank slate of white skin. "I've heard of your type, though I was under the impression that the only two were both male."

Danni gritted her teeth, "Enough talk, more me kicking your butt!" Danni formed a glowing green ball in her hands and threw it at the Bishop's stomach.

The Bishop side-stepped the ectoblast. He grabbed Damien's shoulder, his hand glowing red. The red glow spread from Damien's shoulder to the rest of his body. Damien gave a silent howl.

"Leave them alone!" Danni flew at the Bishop, hitting him hard. Danni pinned the Bishop up against the tower wall. The glow left Damien, and he sunk down to the floor next to his unconscious brother.

The Bishop grabbed Danni's shoulder. Danni gave a silent scream like Damien's. there was a cold burn that spread through her. Flashes of her life and The Bishop's drove like stakes into her mind.

She saw herself, living in the lab, watching as her so-called father slaved before screens showing Danny Phantom in action. She saw The Bishop standing before a congregation in a church, slamming the bible against the pulpit, preaching fire and brimstone to the frightened church-goers. A mother gripped her child, so frightened by the accusations of sin and the condemnations of an unforgiving god and charismatic priest. Clones floating silently in their stasis chambers: awaiting their father's order. A shivering child covered in a man-shaped shadow. She begged to know how to make it up for her born sin. The original Danny who'd raced with her, kidded with her, fed her and fought with her screaming in pain as he fought the electric charges that were trying to force his transformation. A young man defiantly stood before the Bishop, accusing him of the disappearance of a young girl. Vlad rose from the ground, transforming to Plasmius and approaching the exhausted Danny. A crowd of horrified villagers stared dumbfounded at the priest they had trusted with their souls. Their faces darkened from disbelief to fury.

Danni blasted The Bishop off of her. She landed on the ground, feeling slightly woozy.

"An Eve, fascinating." The Bishop purred, his hands smoking red.

_Kay was staring out the shop window, apprehensively clutching her Teacup._

"_Bye Bye Baby, don't be long,_

_I worry about you while you're gone." She hummed._

"_What's up with you now?" Natalie asked. She placed a hand on Kay's shoulder. Kay turned slightly._

"_The boys and Danni aren't back yet. I should never of let them go."_

_That startled Natalie. Even when the boys had been running wild in the streets, Kay had never expressed any interest in "diminishing their freedom."_

"_My Spider-sense is tingling." Kay muttered._

"_What?"_

"_Spider-sense, from Spider-man? Oh never mind. I've just got a really bad feeling hat the kids are in trouble."_

"What did you do?" Danny asked, feeling woozy.

"All of the flock must give a little," The Bishop raised an arm, his hand glowing red. Danni heard movement from behind her and she turned to see the twins rise, their eyes glowing red. "And then they must obey."

The twins leapt at Danni, who went intangible, letting them fall through her.

"David! Damien! Stop! It's me, Danni!" She turned to the Bishop.

"What are you doing to them?"

"Do tell me, because it's been so long, but do all of the weaker sex have to have everything explained to them, or is it just the children?" The Bishop gloated. "They are in my power, in my prison. Here I am omnipotent, all-powerful, or are those words too grandiose for you?"

David and Damien rose from the floor. They stretched out their hands towards Danni. Danni dodged their outstretched hands by raising up in the air. She was too tired to fight The Bishop, and she couldn't let the twins get hurt. The Bishop rose up into the air above her, laughing. Danni eyed the cracked window facing the street. She noticed that Mike and his pals had long since run away. Jerks.

"Why fight it Danielle?" The Bishop asked, "You were destined to lose. You're a mere rib, a weak, foolish shadow of the true creation."

Danni cringed at being used by that name. He must have seen her past like she had seen his.

"That's not true!" Danni glanced towards the window, a desperate plan forming. "I might not be able to beat you, but I'm sure not going to lose to you!" Danni swooped down towards the brothers who had been hopping up and down, trying to reach her. She scooped them both into her arms, crashing through the window. Danni mentally cursed for not thinking to phase through the window as shards of the aged glass cut through her skin.

Danni was tumbling towards the ground. David's eyes opened to see the pavement hurtling towards him. David screamed, but just as he cringed, waiting for the painful stop, Danni regained control, flying them across the street, their shoes skidding against the concrete.

Danni and the twins hit the grass on the other side, rolling to a stop.

From the tower the Bishop watched the three children. His blank face could betray no emotion, but his slave outside the tower door backed down the stairs, feeling his master's growing fury.


	5. Heroes and Villians

Chapter 5:

David and Damien sat up, rubbing their heads.

"Damien? What happened? I was up in the tower, and… who is that?" He pointed at the white-haired girl who was laid out between them. Damien shrugged.

Danni felt the tingling sensation of the melting about her stomach. Scared, she powered down.

A white ring flowed down her, changing her hair black and her clothes back to her usual hoodie and shorts.

"Danni?" Damien gasped.

Danni pushed herself up off the ground, grateful not to see her arms dissolve.

"Guys? She asked."

"How'd you do that?" David was practically bouncing.

"What are you?" Damien asked.

"Why are we down here?" David asked.

"What happened to the guy with no face?" Damien asked, his eyes growing wide.

At the last question, Danni pointed up at the tower, where the black silhouette could be seen watching them from the shattered window.

"Why isn't he coming down?" Damien asked.

"He's trapped there. I'll explain it on the way home. Remember, Kay said to be home before nightfall?"

David and Damien exchanged glances.

"Oh, man!" David finally said. "Mom's gonna kill us!"

"_I swear, I'm gonna kill them." Kay growled, checking her watch. "If they haven't been in some terrible accident that prevented them from getting home on time, I'm gonna kill them."_

"So you're Danny Phantom's super-powered clone?" Damien was beaming. It was like something out of a comic book.

"Yeah, but if I use up too much energy at once, I'll melt into a puddle of green goo." Danni sighed.

"Cool!" Danni and David glared at Damien. "Not in a good way…" Damien muttered.

Danni had told them everything. About Vlad, Danny, the other clones, about how she'd run away after finding out her father was just using her. In a way, she felt a bit of the weight she'd been carrying lift off her chest. The twins babbled excitedly, asking about her powers, about Danny, about the clones and Vlad. She was cool. In their eyes she was the coolest thing that had ever graced their little tourist town… besides the time Harrison Ford had visited, of course.

"What about the Bishop?" Damien finally asked.

"He's some sort of evil ghost. He's able to control people when their asleep, or the ghosts of the people he's hurt." She shuddered, remembering his cold touch.

"He's like a vampire." David said. "Only he takes people's energy instead of blood. Mom once told me about it. They're called sigh-vamps." He puffed up his chest, proud to of added something they didn't know.

"Did you see the memories?" Danni asked them.

David and Damien stared at her blankly for a moment.

"I think I had a nightmare." Damien mumbled. "When he touched me, I saw things. I thought it was a dream."

"I saw things too. I think it was his past. He was a preacher, he scared people and hurt them." Danni said.

"And when they found out what he'd done," added David, suddenly remembering a piece, "They hung him from a tree."

"And he's been haunting Derytown ever since." Damien ended.

"But he can't leave the tower room for some reason." Danni reminded them. "He called it his prison."

"There better be an excellent explanation for why you're late." Kay's voice boomed out from the shop door, where she stood, tapping her foot.

Danni, David and Damien flinched. Danni had never heard Kay so mad she actually hissed, but the twins recognized that tone of voice all too well.

"Hey, Mom…" David grinned sheepishly. "Erm, how are you?"

"You're looking very nice." Damien blinked his green eyes, trying to look cute.

"Sorry we're late," Danni apologized in her most innocent voice. "We lost track of time?"

"Teaching Danni to play basketball?" David added.

"And where is your basketball?" Kay softly growled at them.

"We… lent it to one of Mike's friends?" Damien tried desperately to remember what exactly he'd done with it. Yeah, he'd left it with one of Mikes friends when they snuck into the Carter Place.

"Ah, that's very kind of you." There was a rumbling in the depths of Kay's throat that told the three kids they were not going to get off. "But you're still late coming home. I was getting scared."

"But Mom, Danni collapsed!" Damien suddenly burst out.

"What?" She put her hand against Danni's forehead. "You're as cold as ice!" She exclaimed. "Natalie! Heat up the tea! We've got ourselves an emergency!"

Natalie peered out from the kitchen.

"What kind of emergency?" she groaned.

"Danni collapsed earlier, and she's like an ice-cube!"

Natalie gave Kay a puzzled look.

"She looks fine to me."

"It's eighty degrees outside!"

Natalie disappeared back into the kitchen, and Danni could hear the beeping of the microwave as Natalie set it to reheat a cup of tea.

Danni sat down on one of the chairs as Kay run upstairs for a blanket. She was still feeling weak from her fight with the Bishop, but she didn't think it was that bad.

The microwave beeped again, signaling that it was done. Natalie carried out the cup on a small plate and handed it to Danni.

"This is the famous Lemon family recipe," Natalie told her, "It'll cure just about anything that ails you."

"Really?"

"Short of getting hit by a semi, yup."

Danni sipped the Tea, grimacing as it burned her tongue.

Kay ran down with the blankets, shooing the boys to their beds, her earlier anger forgotten.

Danni hid a smile behind the teacup. In her concern, Kay had forgotten to ground Danni and the twins. They'd skated by this time.

This time. But the Bishop was still up there in the tower. And Danni had a creeping suspicion that it wasn't over.

_Those kids know how to play her. Danni was okay. I figure at the most she'd suffered from low blood-sugar. As for turning cold, well, I can't explain that, but she was back to normal by morning. Kay sat up with her all night like she'd done the first night Danni arrived. _

_Mike Mores and his friends came by in the morning and returned David's ball. To think I'd suspected them of lying. I thought they'd bounced it through another window. _

_Not that I pay much attention to such things, but there was a bit more animosity between Mike and David. Mikes friends seemed to be excited to see David, though, and the lot of them went out to play ball. _

_For a while there I thought Kay was going to ground the lot of them, but just now she was talking about getting them all cell-phones. She said that way they could tell her when they would be running late. Whatever. Kay says people underestimate kids. She says that kids should be allowed to explore their world, to find things out for themselves. I told her that was hardly how parents were expected to run things anymore. "Live and Let Live. It's the only way they'll ever truly learn."_


End file.
